​​If you love cozy mysteries then this collection of free and hot new release mystery books and audiobooks will whet your appetite for the weekend ahead.

Please be sure to double check that the free books are still free when you download them as the free promotions are for short periods only. If you see a book that you like that isn't free, then why not ask your local library to stock the book for you for free. You just need to request the ebook, audiobook, or print book for you and you can find the ASIN number in the product details on Amazon. 

​* Don't forget to double check that the book is still on a free promotion so you don't get charged.

​Join me live on Facebook every Friday, 8pm UK time for book chat, virtual coffee, and news. An informal hangout where you can get to know other readers and ask me anything you like

I do have a limited number of audiobook codes that I can give away to fans of my books if you would like to review my audiobook versions. All you need to do is message me here and let me know whether you have a preference for a particular audiobook (you can try them all, but please don't waste codes if you won't genuinely use them) and whether you prefer the UK or US Audible store. You don't need to be based in the UK or US but you do need to decide which of those two stores you want to get your download from.   

​​This Facebook group has been set up for you, so that you can share any book reviews or chat about your favourite books with other cozy mystery readers. It is your community to chat about all things cozy mystery. 

​​Every year on Agatha Christie's birthday the world celebrates everything cozy with #cozymysteryday

​​You can help to cover the cost of Free Book Friday and keep it going by becoming a Patron for $1 a month or by donating the cost of a cup of coffee. 

As a thank you, Patrons get all of my ebooks and audiobooks for free before anyone else, as well as your name in the acknowledgement section of upcoming books, and extra swag from time to time. You can also receive signed, limited edition print book copies of all new print books each month.

Your support helps to cover the cost of Mailerlite, Bookfunnel, and other website software and means that because of you, over 3000 people receive free books every single weekend! 

​Royalties from my books and Kindle Unlimited page reads, as well as money raised through Amazon Smile UK is used by my UK registered charity Oceans Project. These funds provide environmental and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) education expeditions for young people aged 5-25 from around the world who are disadvantaged due to gender, poverty, war, disability, natural disaster, or isolation. Expeditions include shark conservation in Belize, climate change research in the Canadian Arctic, coral reef conservation in Australia, and Amazon River conservation in Ecuador. In the future I plan to organise one off expeditions for my readers to join me on similar citizen science expeditions.  

​This week I began the first of many changes to my life, in order to make room for more coziness. I haven't been in my new place for long and I had nothing when I got here, but amazingly after sorting through every single cupboard and having a bit of a spring clean, I still managed to find a few things to get rid of. I love the simplicity of a minimal life and I find it quite claustrophobic to have too much stuff, but if you are one of those people who hasn't moved house recently or tends to hoard things, then I can highly recommend a book (and a Netflix series) called Spark Joy by Marie Kondo. Basically, you look at every item you own and you decide whether it makes you feel happy or not when you look at it. If it doesn't 'spark joy' then can you get rid of it?

​I only had a handful of items because I've moved so much in the past 18 months that I've gone through this process multiple times and only just purchased basic furniture things like a bed, but the point is, if I can find a few things that I don't need, then so can you. I needed to find a way to bring in funds pretty desperately because I knew my dog, Isla, was dying and I needed to have £125 in my bank ready to pay the crematorium otherwise they wouldn't collect her and I didn't want to have her body lying around at home and because I'm renting it is illegal to bury a pet - plus my yard is paving slabs and I wanted to be able to take her ashes to my forever home in the Lake District later in the year. 

The only thing I could think of to sell, was my cat treadmill. This was a luxury purchase but also essential when I was living in one room of the bed and breakfast when I was of no fixed abode for 14 months as my three cats were in a confined place and putting on weight and getting bored and were starting to get cabin fever. They used the wheel all the time in the room, but since we moved to the this place and now they play outside most of the day, the treadmill is just gathering dust. So I put it up for sale on Facebook Marketplace, along with a couple of extra plates and bowls (I live alone, and really don't need a whole set especially since I don't know anyone here so never have guests over), and a few other trivial items. The treadmill sold after a few days, and I gave up with the smaller items as they were a couple of pounds each and seemed to be attracting a lot of either scary people (from their Facebook profiles - always vet people before allowing them to your house) or were time wasters and didn't show up. Those items I ended up taking to the pawn shop where I got my replacement laptop. But you could sell your stuff outside your house in a yard sale if you have neighbours (which I don't because the properties are mostly empty or boarded up), have a car boot sale (I don't have a car and didn't have enough things for this), or sell them through places like Craig's List or Ebay. I probably could have got more for them through Facebook Marketplace, but I decided that my time and energy was worth more than waiting on non shows, and so the pawn shop was my preference. I took things in to town and asked for valuations from both places before deciding. 

The sale of the cat wheel was cash, which I promptly paid into my new Starling bank account via the post office at the end of my street, and I even had a little bit left to get some food in the house, which felt amazing - nothing fancy, just bread, eggs, cheese. The things that I sold at the pawn shop (CEX was one place I visited) netted me about £40 amazingly, and I used this to buy seeds, compost, and containers ready to grow my own produce which I hope will save me money in the longer term. I did toy with using this money to pay off the interest on this month's credit card bill, but I decided that I was better to 'invest' and 'grow' this 'seed' money because all being well it will save me more over the course of the year and help me to clear my debts and buy my house sooner. I'll talk more about debts in another post. I'm no expert on financial things, I'm really just sharing my own journey with you. I'll break down exactly what I spent this money on in another post, and tell you where I got things from and how I plan to be more self sufficient and to lower my outgoings.

But that's your homework for today! Have a spring clean and see if there is anything you can sell, and then list it for sale or sell it at a car boot or through a place like CEX. If you don't use those items from week to week, then chances are you won't miss then at all, and you could use that cash to grow more cash, time, or energy in the longer term (or use it to buy investment pieces like tracker funds or new cozy mystery book covers). I would love to know how you get on. If you feel overwhelmed then tackle a little bit at a time, like one shelf of a cupboard, or your sock drawer first. Oh, and if you are doing clothes things first, then check out Marie Kondo's folding video. I've been using this system for a couple of years now and I love it.      

If you've been following my posts on Patreon or Kickstarter recently, then this blog post will come as no surprise to you at all! You see, February, for want of a better word, has been the crappest of crap months. Not nice at all, and I'm already willing it to be March. First of all my dog of fifteen years, Isla, died, and secondly my laptop of eleven years died. I got lots of lovely comments from folks and most folks got it and understood, but some of the messages only made me feel worse. The helpful advice from folks telling me that they haven't had a laptop in years and they've managed just fine. The thing is, this was a huge deal to me, because the laptop is my bread and butter. I work from home, and no laptop was akin to losing my job and losing my salary and ability to pay rent and bills, and suddenly credit card companies and loans were chasing me for missed payments and calling me every five minutes. But worse still, I lost the freedom to make choices for my dying dog. I had vet bills to pay, and I was worried about whether I could afford the crematorium payment since I don't have a garden and it is illegal to bury pets in rental properties. This wasn't just an inconvenience of not having a laptop to check Facebook, and worse still, I missed several publishing deadlines and ended up locked out of Amazon for pre-orders for a year. I could have lost my entire business, which is not great when you are just a few months in to a new career.

Anyway, you get the picture. February was nasty. But there was a silver lining. I had a Kickstarter running, and only because of that and the amazing backers, I was able to pick up a secondhand laptop from the local pawn shop, once the funds paid out and cleared into my account. I actually dread to think what would have happened otherwise, because no way could I replace it or have survived without the support from my readers and patrons. Food banks are one thing, but getting things like internet disconnected is stressful.   
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There is nothing like a crisis to get you rethinking the meaning of life. I had been on the edge of a cliff for a very long time, wanting to go full time with my writing, but too scared to stop working with my clients even though I spent all day everyday, even Christmas Day and holidays wondering whether they would send me work that day, and often it would come in at 4 am so I'd have to wake up and start work to get it done in time. I lived that way for a few years, constantly checking emails and fretting about whether work would come in each day and then whether or not I won't get paid. The laptop dying gave me no option, I lost that client work but I gained control and freedom of my time once more. I got to snuggle with Isla and to nurse her through her final weeks and I got to reflect on where I am and where I want to be a year from now. I was ready for change, and I found excitement and energy in the midst of what was otherwise a very bleak time. 

So now, I have a laptop and time to get into the creative flow, and to plan out my own day, and to sleep for a full night without client interruptions. That feels amazing, let me tell you! And since I have a bit of extra time, I decided that I would start a new blog thread called The Cozy Guide to Life. 

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At the end of the day, what I would like in my perfect future life, is to be able to ice swim in Lake Windermere whenever I want, and to have my friends come and swim with me, and to have my pets sat on the bank watching and playing. 

​Knowing that, actually makes things very simple for me, expensive, but simple to figure out. I want to buy a jetty on Lake Windermere, and in my perfect world I would like to design and build my own house, so I can sit and write my books and have my pets curled up besides me, or friends over to visit. From there I calculated how much I would need to make that dream a reality, and then I set about planning how I could reach that financial goal - how many books would I need to write and sell, and what could I do to reduce my spending and to invest more?

Around the same time that I was feeling glum and processing all of these things, I ended up watching Anne with an E on Netflix whilst Isla was in her last days, and I sobbed a lot during that time, so watching an angsty teenager was quite cathartic as it turned out. The point is, the family end up losing their savings and having to sell everything they own to avoid losing their home and livelihood to the bank, and they also spend much of their time growing their own food and baking bread and jams. Cooking and baking and growing my own things has always felt like a bot of a luxury to me, the kinds of things I would love to do, when I'm financially secure and in my forever home - which is crazy when you think about it. How has buying rather than making and growing your own produce become the norm and why does something that people have done since cavemen times seem like something only rich or retired people get to do? Especially for someone like me who tries to be environmentally and health conscious and lives on a financially knife edge for much of the time. I get excited when I have £10 to spend at the supermarket, and I am not joking. That buys me ten items if I am lucky - bread, milk, butter and a few other things and I stress before reaching the till in case I've added up the costs wrong and have to put something back at the till.

​And for some bizarre reason, I decided to re-watch a documentary on Amazon called 'Playing with Fire' which I'd forgotten about for a long time. 

But this was all the kick up the bum that I needed to make some big changes in my life, and I figured I would share my own journey with you through this blog, so that you can create your own cozy life too should you want to. Essentially I'll be focusing on three things:

1. Decreasing my spending
2. Increasing my income
3. Investing for my future

I'll be looking for ways to replace my spending with things that are free or low cost, like growing my own tomatoes instead of buying them, and investing in index tracker funds and book covers and my business so that I can bring in more passive income. 

Everything is centred around me wanting to increase my happiness, health, energy, time, and financial stability. Whilst minimising my environmental footprint where possible. I want to spend less money on the things I don't care about like clothes, so that I can spend more on the things I want to spend more on, like that place by the lake so I can get back to ice swimming and start to compete internationally and at the Winter Olympics. I also want to get a new puppy once I move house at the end of the year, but I don't want to ever be beholden to my finances again, I want to have freedom to make decisions that aren't factoring in the cost when it really matters the most. 

I hope that all makes a little bit of sense, but basically I'm going to post on here most days about little things I've done, that will ultimately add up to something significant that will enable me to be financially independent and to have the freedom to make choices based on what I want to do rather than what I have to do to survive. I hope that this will interest you guys too, and I can't wait to share my experiments with yoghurt making, and learning to make bread, along with any recipes for things I've made with what I've grown in my yard. And most of all, I can't wait to begin writing my next cozy mystery and to start being able to write without the fear of being chased for missed bill payments or worrying about how I'm going to pay for my next meal. I know a lot of you folks are in a similar position to me, which is why you love the Free Book Friday books, so I hope that what I learn along the way will help you to feel more cozy in your own life too. Let the adventure begin!